Rail Budget 2013: Pawan Kumar Bansal scores with berth of a new idea

NEW DELHI: From wi-fi trains to plush lounges and mouth watering food, the railway budget for 2013-14 has promised goodies for travellers on its vast, nationwide network. Providing better facilities appears to be the minister's top priority as around 16% of the budget spending is earmarked for enhancing passenger amenities.

In an effort to reach out to every section of society, he has announced that stations and trains will soon be made more friendly for the elderly and differently-abled. Bansal unveiled plans for installation of 179 escalators and 400 elevators at major stations and said wheel-chairs and battery operated vehicles would be available at more stations. When the minister spoke about making coaches wheel-chair friendly, he promised Braille stickers indicating the layout of coaches including toilets.

For the affluent traveller, executive lounges will be set up at Bilaspur, Visakhapatnam, Patna, Nagpur, Agra, Jaipur and Bangalore following the good response to the first such lounge set up at New Delhi station.

The minister also announced a ticketing facility through mobile phones and SMS alerts to provide updates on reservation status. A revamped e-ticketing system will be rolled out which will be capable of handling 7,200 tickets per minute against 2,000 now and 1.20 lakh users at a time against 40,000 now.

Cleanliness and hygiene will get enhanced attention with a provision for passengers to contact on-board cleaning staff through SMS/phone call/email for coach cleanliness and real-time feedback. And the budget talked about setting up 8-10 mechanized laundries for quality washing of linen and fitting bio-toilets in trains and stations.

Around 105 stations, each of which serve a population of more than one million and are of religious and tourist importance, have been selected for immediate attention to cleanliness.

To ensure better food, testing labs are being tied up along with third party inspection while state-of-the-art base kitchens are planned on railway premises. All base kitchens will have to take ISO certification. A centralized catering services monitoring cell is also being set up with a toll free number (1800 111 321) for grievance redressal on real-time basis.

Around 60 stations have been added to the Adarsh station scheme which will be upgraded with greater facilities.